No one had wanted to believe in Brexit and it came. No one wanted to believe in a "no deal" and this is the scenario that is now emerging.

It was clear that it was politically important for Brussels to flex muscles and to indicate that opting out would have a cost.

It was clear that Brexit supporters, on the other hand, were keen on showing that they did not intend to let themselves be reimposed on Brussels standards as part of a deal.

However, it was thought on both sides that reason would eventually prevail and that well-understood interests on both sides of the Channel would lead to a Norwegian-style free-trade agreement.

The anti-Theresa May vote on 15 January shattered these hopes, which were a reason not to be very actively preparing for a "no-deal". In the automotive industry, as elsewhere, we must take up our calculatoragain and try to understand very quickly what is likely to happen.

To this end, a number of statistical realities should be recalled with respect to British motor vehicle foreign trade.

For months now, we have been struck by the widening gap between the ever-repeated intentions in favour of "electrification" and a commercial reality that fails to comply with it. On May 22, France's "Comité Stratégique de Filière" (a government initiative to have the industry's stakeholders work together defining common objectives) set a target for 2022 of 150,000 electric vehicles sold in 2022 in France, which should correspond, on the basis of 2017 registrations (25,000), to an annual growth rate of 43%. This had only been 14.5% in 2017 and, over the first 8 months of 2018, the increase was 7.4%. While P-HEV are growing by 49.5%, on such a narrow basis that this is not really significant.